Siege of Banyas (1176)

The Siege of Banyas was a two-year siege of the Arab city of Banyas on the Syrian coast by the Kingdom of Jerusalem's forces, led by Gerard de Ridefort and including the Templar Order marshall and the Constable of Jerusalem. The Jerusalemites launched an all-out assault on the city after building two battering rams to bust down the gates, and the Jerusalemites massacred 1,401 people in the city after its conquest.

Siege
In 1174, an army of 681 crusaders (mostly Templar Order sergeants, confrere knights, and crossbowmen) led by the Templar grand master Gerard de Ridefort marched out of Acre and laid siege to the Saracen city of Baniyas (then spelled Banyas) to the north of the Sea of Galilee. Banyas, like Damascus and the other Arab cities in Outremer, was a self-governing and independent city-state that was only nominally a part of the greater Arab empire due to its opposition to the crusaders. Therefore, there would be no Arab relief army, and Banyas was completely surrounded. The crusaders constructed siege works, building two battering rams for use in the assault. In 1176, after two years of siege, the crusaders assaulted Banyas. Their forces breached the gates with the ram, and their forces flooded into the city. Banyas' ruler, al-Mustamsik, was killed by the Knights of Jerusalem shortly after the gates were breached, and the Saracens and Jerusalemites met in a crowded battle on the main street heading towards the souk in the center of the city. The bloody battle eventually resulted in a crusader victory ater the Saracens were overwhelmed, and the angry crusaders exterminated 1,401 of the populace. Anything that moved in Banyas was murdered, and many buildings were damaged, with the mosque being destroyed and replaced by a small chapel when the Christians repaired the city.